


Seventy Years Gone

by BuzzCat



Series: 30 Day Cheesy Tropes And Rare Pairs Challenge [19]
Category: Agent Carter (TV), Iron Man (Movies), The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Thor (Movies)
Genre: F/M, vampire!AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-21
Updated: 2017-06-21
Packaged: 2018-09-10 20:29:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,060
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8938018
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BuzzCat/pseuds/BuzzCat
Summary: Darcy and Jane go to work for Tony Stark, but Darcy has history from seventy years ago she isn't sure she can just forget.





	1. Chapter 1

Darcy leaned back in the plane seat. They were over the Atlantic Ocean, an ocean she and Jane had crossed more times than anyone would guess. The water clouds even looked familiar by now, from how many times they had crossed back and forth. Darcy took a deep breath and closed her eyes. They were going to work for Tony Stark and Darcy wasn’t sure how she felt about the topic. There was history with the family she didn’t think she was ready to confront.

Technically, it had all started about two hundred years ago. Darcy had been at a social party, admiring the room. Somehow, after all those years, she remembered the contrast of her white gloves against the rose pink gown she’d worn. She didn’t remember much other than that. She’d woken in an alcove with two pinpricks on her neck and a strange sort of hunger.

At first, being a vampire had terrified her. Back then, she hadn’t been exactly aware of what she was. It had been a few weeks before she even understood what her strange hunger was for. It wasn’t until her sister pricked her finger in the midst of embroidery that Darcy felt the tell-tale signs of vampirism. Her canines had lengthened and she’d felt something warm in her abdomen. She’d killed that night, for the first time. It had been a coincidence, really. She’d gone for a walk to clear her head and heard a scream from a nearby alley. She’d seen a girl pressed up against a wall by a leering man who had one hand up her skirts and the other on his belt buckle. Darcy had pounced.

It wasn’t her cleanest kill. From hunger, anger, or inexperience, she’d actually torn off the side of the man’s neck and shoved her face into the bloody gaping hole. The girl had screamed again and ran, but Darcy hadn’t cared. She drank until there wasn’t a drop left and ran. She paid a streetwalker to change clothes with her (hers were covered in blood) and returned home. Darcy had never felt so sated in her life.

Over the next few decades, she discovered new things. For example, the hunger hadn’t appeared again. She kept eating regular meals with her family, but it all tasted vaguely bland. Raw or rare meat tasted better, but Darcy limited herself to keep her family from suspecting any change.

There were two other things that caught her by surprise: she didn’t age and her face changed.

The change in her facial features wasn’t sudden. It happened over months and years. As best Darcy could figure, her face took on a slight resemblance to the man she killed. Not enough that she looked exactly like him, just enough that she looked slightly different.

Of course, that stopped mattering ten years after her change, when her reflection started to fade. By the time she was thirty years “dead”, Darcy couldn’t see herself at all.

That’s when she met Jane. Darcy had been in the washroom when she’d looked in the mirror and realized the girl beside her didn’t have a reflection either. Jane had realized it at the same time and a huge grin had broken out over the shorter woman’s face,

“You’re one too!”

They’d been inseparable since. Apparently, according to Jane, it was common for two vampires to be platonic partners. It helped with alibis for murders, help picking out outfits, and the loneliness. Also, it helped Darcy better understand her new state of existence. Jane was older than her, around since the mid-1700s. She explained that the deep hunger was a once-every-hundred-years thing and Darcy breathed easy for the first time in a long while. She and Jane quickly became close, traveling together and becoming like sisters. Darcy had left her family when they got suspicious about her lack of wrinkles and she hadn’t realized how badly she missed the companionship of someone she could be close to, have no secrets from.

She and Jane were still together in 1946. That year, Darcy started to feel the stirrings of the bloodthirstiness from her early days and she and Jane begun the search for a pretty victim that they could live with killing. It had been an old woman who, after they explained it to her, had shown them pictures of herself as a 20-something and agreed to the, for lack of a better word, procedure. That’s when Darcy met Edwin.

Edwin Jarvis was both the best and worst experience Darcy had had. The best, because she’d fallen in love. The worst, because their relationship had been short and had wounded Darcy in a place she thought she’d lost forever. He’d died in a car accident and his car had been pushed over the bridge. The car was recovered with his mangled corpse in the front seat. They’d been together for three years.

Now, almost 70 years after that, Darcy was going to see Tony Stark. She wondered if he’d ever seen a picture of her; she doubted it. She and Howard had never been close, barely meeting each other in the last week before Edwin had died and at the funeral.

“We’re here.” said Jane, patting Darcy’s arm to pull her from the whirlpool of memories. Darcy tried to smile, but from Jane’s sympathetic look, she’d failed. Darcy hoped it would hurt less once she’d adjusted.

The plane landed on the roof of Stark Tower and as Jane and Darcy disembarked, a redhead greeted them,

“Doctor Foster and Miss Lewis?”

“That’s us!” said Jane. The woman smiled and shook hands with them both,

“Pepper Potts. I’m the welcoming committee, as I’m afraid Mr. Stark has been detained. Please, this way. We’ll have someone get your bags.” Even as she led them to the roof door, men in suits started bringing bags off the plane. Jane turned and shouted,

“Be careful! Those instruments are very delicate!” One of the men turned and nodded. Darcy knew that the ‘delicate instrument’ was in fact a recording of all the biological findings Jane had found on vampires. She didn’t know yet if there’d even be a cure for vampirism (and Darcy had made her peace with the fact that the movies made it look so much worse), but Jane was a scientist and wanted to find out everything she could.

As they entered the building, Pepper Potts explained,

“The entire building is monitored by Mr. Stark’s AI. JARVIS, say hello.” Darcy had the briefest of moments to brace herself before she heard an achingly familiar voice,

“Hello, Dr. Foster, Miss Lewis.” Jane whipped around and saw Darcy’s distress, tears welling and her face even paler than normal. Darcy distantly heard her making excuses about jet lag to Miss Potts and saying that Darcy need to lie down, but she couldn’t focus on anything other than that voice. The damn voice that had her coming undone in seconds. Miss Potts showed them to their individual rooms and as soon as Darcy closed her door, she fell to her knees, great sobs wracking her body. Jane wrapped her arms around the weeping woman,

“I’m so sorry.” she whispered. Jane had seen the love story unfold and had been the one to drag Darcy out of bed a month after it happened. Darcy cried and cried. She thought the universe had taken enough out of her when Edwin had died, but it had packed this last punch for when it would hurt most. Darcy threw back her head and let out a cry of anguish that had JARVIS hesitantly inquiring,

“Are you alright, Miss Lewis?”

Darcy only cried harder.


	2. Fluff!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After six months, I finally updated this! The long-awaited fluffy ending everyone has been asking for.

Darcy lay in bed, bundled in covers and staring at the wall. Jane lay behind her, arms wrapped around Darcy. JARVIS had been disabled in their apartment.

“Darcy? Sweetie, you’ve been laying here for two days. Can you…we have to emerge at some time. Miss Potts is already getting concerned.”

“I know,” Darcy mumbled into the comforter. She thought she had been ready. She knew she could handle Tony; it would hurt to be reminded of Howard and by relation Edwin, but she knew she could have handled it. But now…The one man she had truly loved in all her long life was gone, and his voice still spoke from the ceiling at every opportunity. Jane sighed behind her,

“Darcy, look at me.”

Darcy slowly turned in bed, turning to look at Jane with red weepy eyes. Jane put a hand on her cheek, “Darcy, I know. I know you miss him. I…I understand.” And Darcy knew Jane did understand. Jane had told her, late one night when they’d been drunk on exploration and rum, about Jane’s husband. He’d been Norse, tall blond and good with kids. They’d lived in the country, in a house he built for them. Jane had been human then. They’d wanted children. Jane had seen him holding his sister’s daughter and something in her had cried out to have children of her own. Her husband had been more than enthusiastic about the idea. Jane was pregnant within the month, as and she grew big with child, she grew sick. Her husband had worried himself sick, pacing back and forth until the wee hours of the morning. His worry fed Jane’s worry, and the vicious cycle had continued until Jane gave birth to a screaming son. Jane had held him for a brief moment before the midwife had managed to push Jane’s husband out of the room, along with the screaming baby. The midwife had tried to help Jane, patch her up, but the young woman had lost too much blood. She’d been sick before, but now she was dying. It was the midwife who had turned Jane. She’d done it as a blessing, but Jane saw it as a curse. Jane had been unable to feed her son, afraid she would pass it on to him. She rose in the morning to hold her baby and kiss her husband, but even then she had known she could not keep them.

It was three years later that Jane had waited until her husband and son were out in the field before leaving. She left a note, explaining she loved both of them very much but could not stay, before fleeing the country. She’d gone back a few years later, in disguise, to see her son, to know that he was hale and safe. Their house was gone, burnt to the ground. When she’d asked about it in the village, she was told both husband and son had been in the building when it burned.

Darcy felt tears gathering in her eyes again. Jane kissed her forehead,

“I know you and I have forever, but I’m afraid the rest of the Tower does not. Do you want to go investigate? Pepper mentioned that the AI system doesn’t work outside of the residential areas. We could go look at the rest of the Tower. Do you want to try that?”

Darcy hesitated before nodding very slightly. Jane heaved a sigh of relief, “Thank you.” Darcy slowly crawled out of bed, throwing on her rattiest jeans and a comfy sweater before slipping on her converse. Jane said nothing of her friend’s appearance; she was just glad Darcy had gotten out of bed. The pair walked to the elevator, Jane pressing the button for a random floor, just anything that wouldn’t have JARVIS on it. The elevator whizzed down, opening on what appeared to be the cafeteria. While it wasn’t necessarily a point of interest to two vampires, it was something. Jane and Darcy stepped out, looking around. It was a myriad of smells, some of which were even very tempting. Chinese food, hamburgers, hotdogs, and what appeared to be a very classy steak joint they both sincerely hoped serve meat extra rare. But first things first, coffee. No matter if she was dead or undead, Darcy had always loved her coffee.

It being morning, they had to wait in line. Darcy slowly became more and more interested in her surroundings. There was no voice in the ceiling here to remind her of what she lost. There were no reminders, no past. It was an open future. At least for the next decade or so. They were third in line when suddenly Jane grabbed Darcy’s arm,

“Darcy.”

Darcy looked up at her friend, frowning at Jane’s paler-than-normal expression and eyes the size of dinner plates.

“Look.”

Darcy followed her friend’s eyes to the front of the line, to the barista. To Edwin, standing at the counter in an apron and writing an order in sharpie on a cup. Darcy could only stare. No. No, it wasn’t possible. He’d died in a car accident decades ago. But even as she denied it, the pieces started to fit together. He’d died in a car accident, an accident easily faked. The body they’d pulled had been unidentifiable. He had no family, not even pictures of them. Of all the years they’d spent together, she’d never once seen him checking his reflection. Darcy hadn’t either so she hadn’t thought much of it at the time, but now…

Now, they were at the front of the line. He looked up at her, the same polite smile she remembered from years ago, before it broke into something else. Shock, hope, joy.

“Darcy?” he whispered, almost under his breath. She let out a little breath before breaking into a huge smile,

“Edwin!” She jumped over the counter and right into his arms, kissing him hard. He hadn’t changed at all, hadn’t aged a single day. He held her like she remembered, kissed her like she remembered. Darcy broke away from the kiss, laughing and crying happily. Even as Edwin wiped away her tears, she could tell he was crying too. She gently cupped his cheeks,

“How? I mean, how are you here?”

“Not here,” he said. He looked around at the waiting customers, checking his watch, “My shift ends in—“

“Screw your shift, they’ll live. Come one!” Edwin hesitated for a moment before he whipped off his apron and threw it at his coworker,

“I’m taking my lunch, Don,” he turned back to Darcy and grabbed her hand, “I want to show you something.” Jane watched as Darcy and Edwin ran out of the cafeteria, hand in hand and laughing.

 

Edwin ducked into his residential area, letting the door close before saying,

“JARVIS, please tell Tony to come to my room as soon as is convenient.”

“Of course. Sir says he will arrive in ten minutes. Best to give him at least half an hour,” JARVIS said. Edwin turned to Darcy, smiling,

“That will never not be strange.”

“Darling, in our world ‘strange’ has a whole new meaning,” Darcy said. Edwin smiled and pulled her into another fierce hug. Darcy sighed, burying her face into his soft t-shirt,

“How is this possible?” she whispered. Edwin pulled back, smiling down at her before talking her hands in his,

“You won’t believe me.”

“Edwin, I just found my previously-believed-dead boyfriend alive and well almost seventy years after he died, and he hasn’t aged a day. I’ll believe more than you think.”

“I suppose you have an excellent point. And don’t think we won’t get back to how you, beautiful creature that you are, are still standing here looking radiant as ever. Darcy, please, sit down.” She sat. “Do you have a pocket mirror on you off hand?”

“No, I’m afraid I don’t,” she said. Even as he asked, Darcy smiled. She knew where this was going. She stood up again, looking Edwin up and down,

“Edwin, darling, are you about to tell me that you’re a vampire?”

He froze in the middle of riffling through his things, looking for a mirror. He slowly turned to Darcy, folding his hands behind him and squaring his shoulders,

“I am,” he replied hesitantly and Darcy could hear the question in his tone. Darcy smiled brilliantly and hoped the light caught her canines just right. Slowly, she walked forward to Edwin, smoothing her hands along the hard planes of his shoulders and arms,

“Excellent. Because I am too.” She looked up at him. He stared at her, eyes darting over her appearance and hoping for some signal of vampirism. Darcy rolled her eyes,

“I lived forever and barely changed. Being a vampire is nothing like in the movies. I love garlic on literally everything and the drinking blood thing is barely a thing. Is that enough proof?”

“I…yes, yes I suppose it is.” He pulled her close, wrapping an arm around her waist and bringing his other hand up to softly stroke her hair. When he spoke again, his voice was thick with unshed tears,

“Darcy, I’m…I’m so sorry. I left you.”

“You thought you had to.”

“But I still left you.”

“Which you should definitely never ever do again,” she said and Edwin was not surprised at all at the command in her tone.

“I won’t,” he pulled back looked Darcy in the eye, “I swear to you, I won’t.”

“Good.”

The door beeped just as it was thrown open by none other than Tony Stark.

“Alright, by barista extraordinaire, what’s up?” He took in the sight of Darcy held tightly in Edwin’s arms and Edwin held just as tightly in hers. Tony raised an eyebrow, “Okay, definitely not what I expected to find this fine morning.”

“Tony, this is Darcy. She’s…she’s like me,” Edwin said. Tony stared at Darcy, then put his palms together and pointed at Edwin,

“Darcy. As in, love-of-your-life, goddess-of-your-soul Darcy.”

“Yes.”

He pointed at Darcy, “Darcy, as in assistant-to-Jane-Foster Darcy.”

“Yep,” Darcy replied, “Jane’s like us too, fyi.”

Tony was motionless for a second before he sprung into his practiced public eye persona, “In which case welcome, Nosferatu. I hope your blood banks are to your liking.” Edwin smacked his friend on the arm,

“Tony. Be nice,” he turned back to Darcy, “He means well. A bit like a puppy who keeps peeing on the carpet.”

“Ah yes, quite,” Darcy said, turning back to Tony as she stood arm-in-arm with Edwin.  Tony looked between the pair of them, a look of somehow both horror and delight in his eyes,

“Oh lord. There’s two of you.”

**Author's Note:**

> I have a fix-it idea for this fic so it doesn't end in sadness, but I don't know if you guys want to keep the angst or want fluff. Let me know in the comments!


End file.
